Sunday, 30 January 2011

Happy Planet index: US ranks equal with Africa and lower than Mexico and India

(click for larger image)

The Davos World Economic Forum is drawing to a close. We will have to wait another year before the titans on olympus will again allow us to hear their globally significant thoughts.

Nevertheless, this year's events left us with some humourous moments. The CEO of JP Morgan - James Dimon - gave us a wonderfully self-pitying plea for the rest of us to leave the bankers alone. For me, it was the high point of this year's forum. I laughed; I cried, and I loved every moment. I hope he comes back next year. The tissues are ready, James.

I pulled the map above from that document. It tracks the World Economic Forum's Happy Planet Index. "Above a certain level, quantitative increases in GDP no longer signify greater human prosperity. The returns of GDP growth – and its associated resource use – to well-being may fall, or even become negative."

In order to address this deficiency, the Happy Planet Index is calculated on the basis of three components of the Index (life expectancy, life satisfaction and ecological footprint).

The authors of the report claim that "countries in the developed world are often worse at delivering long, happy lives in terms of the planetary inputs that they use than some developing countries."

The conclusions from the report and the map attached abov are shocking. In terms of the Happy Planet Index, the US is at the same level as virtually all of Africa. The US also ranks lower than India and Poland. Judging by the colour coding, the happiest countries seem to be Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela.

The UK is also in pretty bad shape, although happier than the US. We are above Africa, but on the same sorry level and Russia. We rank lower than India and Saudi Arabia.

This, of course, explains the huge population migrations from the desperate wastelands of North America towards the serene and contented lands south of the Rio Grande. Who wouldn't trade a life in New York for one in Mexico city.